Cruise Report: 2023-04-10 : 04-13

Pot survey

Author

Mike O’Brien (UMCES)

Participants

  • Dave Secor (UMCES)
  • Mike O’Brien (UMCES)
  • Lauren Rodriguez (UMCES)
  • Capt. Brendan Harrington (F/V Integrity)
  • Reilly (F/V Integrity, mate)

Pot deployment cruise, 2023-04-12

Overall

  • 02:30 Meet at F/V Integrity, prepare for departure.
  • 02:47 Depart dock, transit to K11 (experimental turbine site).
  • 05:14 Arrive at K11.
    • 05:16 Begin deploying pots.
    • 05:19 Finish deploying pots, transit to L11 (experimental turbine site).
  • 05:33 Arrive at L11.
    • 05:33 Begin deploying pots.
    • 05:36 Finish deploying pots, transit to M10 (experimental turbine site).
  • 05:49 Arrive at M10.
    • 05:49 Begin deploying pots.
    • 05:52 Finish deploying pots, transit to M09 (experimental turbine site).
  • 06:01 Arrive at M09.
    • 06:02 Begin deploying pots.
    • 06:04 Finish deploying pots, transit to C2304-2 (control site).
  • 06:50 Arrive at C2304-2.
    • 06:50 Begin deploying pots.
    • 06:54 Finish deploying pots, transit to C2304-1 (control site).
  • 07:46 Arrive at C2304-1.
    • 07:46 Begin deploying pots.
    • 07:49 Finish deploying pots, begin fishing.
  • 09:34 End fishing, return to West Ocean City, MD.
  • 12:08 Arrive in West Ocean City, MD.

Description

Survey deployment

UMCES crew arrived 10 April and checked gear stored at the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. Crew made sure there were 10 fathoms between snoods, repositioning snoods and extending ground line as needed. All pots were marked with individual pot identifier tags.

Capt. Brendan Harrington and mates Reilly and Will stacked the pots on the boat starting at 11:00 on 11 April. Ground line between pots was coiled and placed into the funnel of the next pot in the sequence.

Survey commenced on 12 April. Wind speed was near 15 knots, coming from the SW. Waves were 3 ft. Cloud cover was 0-10% of the sky. Control sites ranged in depth from 119-136 ft, with turbine sites ranging from 87-108 ft.

Onset HOBO temperature loggers were attached to two rigs due to be deployed at turbine sites to log bottom temperature during deployment. Purchased in 2022, the two instruments are approximately the size of a matchbook and can be attached in a protected manner within the structural ribbing of a fish pot. The HOBO loggers were set up to record at 5 second and 10 minute intervals, respectively, to investigate which interval would work best for this project.

Pot recovery cruise, 2023-04-13

Overall

  • 02:30 Meet at F/V Integrity, prepare for departure.
  • 02:58 Depart dock, transit to C2304-1.
  • 05:20 Arrive at C2304-1.
    • 05:28 Northern trawl anchor (“block”) recovered.
    • 05:38 Southern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to Harrington Chevron Pots
  • Fish chevron pots and infill Harrington pot rigs. Transit to C2304-2.
  • 07:38 Arrive C2304-2. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 07:42 Northern block recovered.
    • 07:51 Southern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to M09.
  • 08:38 Arrive M09. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 08:41 Northern block recovered.
    • 08:51 Southern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to M10.
  • 09:04 Arrive M10. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 09:05 Northern block recovered.
    • 09:16 Southern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to L11.
  • 09:29 Arrive L11. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 09:34 Northern block recovered.
    • 09:48 Southern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to K12.
  • 09:52 Arrive K12. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 09:53 Northern block recovered.
    • 10:01 Southern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to fish for mahi-mahi near Metocean buoy.
  • 1005 End survey, return to West Ocean City, MD.
  • 1230 Arrive in West Ocean City, MD.

Description

Wind speed was 5 knots, coming from the WSW (as reported by Capt. Harrington). Waves were 1-2 feet. Cloud cover was 10% of the sky.

Pots were recovered in the same manner as in previous cruises:

M. O’Brien pulled pots onboard with the assistance of Capt. B. Harrington, reporting catch per species, per pot to D. Secor and L. Rodriguez. Fish from the first 9 pots were placed in the “far” tote with fish from the subsequent 6 pots placed in the “near” tote. Due to how the pot strings were recovered, the “near” pots were the southernmost pots, and the “far” pots the northernmost.

Harrington chevron pots (n=3) were fished between recovery of C2304-1 and C2304-2 trawls.

Example of chevron pot (NOAA)

The ground line was fouled between the first two “far” pots at site L11, precluding the full 10m spacing. Similarly, the ground line between the 3rd- and 2nd-from-the-end “near” pots never left the funnel of the 2nd-from-the-end pot of L11. Though fish were caught in both pots, this pot was not properly fished and the distance between pots was not a full 10 fa.

HOBO temperature loggers were successfully recovered from the rigs at L11 and K11.

Dominant species were Atlantic rock crab (43) and black sea bass (34), with sea urchins, sand dollars, and one sea star also present. 25 of the 90 recovered pots were empty.

There was no significant difference in black sea bass catch between near and far sections of the lines or between control and turbine sites (Poisson GLM, \(p >\) 0.05).

Total length (mm) and weight (g) of all black sea bass were recorded, culling the first five from each “near” and “far” section and releasing the others. Total lengths of other fish species were also recorded. Black sea bass ranged in total length from 202 - 372 mm, with a mean of 294 mm (minimum legal size 320 mm). Weights ranged from 180 - 800 g, mean of 400 g.

There were no significant differences in length or weight between near and far or control and turbine sites (ANOVA, \(p >\) 0.05).

Catch and size data summaries are shown in the sample summary section below.

Station information

datetime depth wind_speed wind_dir wave_height cloud_cover_10th surf_temp_f lon_start lat_start lon_end lat_end notes
deploy
K11 2023-04-12 05:16:34 87.0 15.0 SW 3.0 1.0 49 −74.71333 38.28589 −74.71280 38.28726 NA
L11 2023-04-12 05:33:06 95.4 15.0 SW 3.0 1.0 51 −74.69715 38.28591 −74.69660 38.28726 NA
M10 2023-04-12 05:49:27 108.0 15.0 SW 3.0 1.0 NA −74.67784 38.30271 −74.67736 38.30397 DATA SHEET IS WRONG; M10 visited before M09
M09 2023-04-12 06:02:00 101.0 15.0 SW 3.0 1.0 48 −74.67534 38.31947 −74.67395 38.32099 DATA SHEET IS WRONG; M10 visited before M09
C2304-2 2023-04-12 06:50:40 136.0 15.0 SW 3.0 1.0 48 −74.61630 38.23735 −74.61529 38.23902 NA
C2304-1 2023-04-12 07:46:31 119.0 15.0 SW 3.0 1.0 49 −74.73234 38.19339 −74.73127 38.19534 NA
recover
C2304-1 2023-04-13 05:28:05 NA 45056.0 WSW 2.0 1.0 NA −74.73092 38.19503 −74.73073 38.19342 Track not recorded
C2304-2 2023-04-13 07:42:38 NA 45056.0 WSW 2.0 1.0 NA −74.61524 38.23855 −74.61580 38.23714 NA
M09 2023-04-13 08:41:22 NA 5.0 WSW 2.0 1.0 NA −74.67425 38.32079 NA NA Block 1 recovery not marked on GPS; Line fouled before 1st far pot; DATA SHEET IS WRONG: M09 visited before M10
M10 2023-04-13 09:05:52 NA 5.0 WSW 1.0 1.0 NA −74.67756 38.30367 −74.67763 38.30277 DATA SHEET IS WRONG: M09 visited before M10
L11 2023-04-13 09:34:40 NA 5.0 WSW 1.0 1.0 NA −74.69706 38.28683 −74.70558 38.28643 Ground line fouled between first two far pots (41 and 80) and the 2nd/3rd near pot from the end (94 and 79). Line between 94 and 79 was not released from the funnel.
K11 2023-04-13 09:53:43 NA 5.0 WSW 1.0 1.0 NA −74.71294 38.28719 −74.71300 38.28587 NA

Bottom temperature

Cruise map

Sample summary

Catch

Black sea bass catch
N min average med max sd retained
April - 2023 - Control
far 24 0 1.3 1 4 1.19 8
near 13 0 1.1 1 3 0.90 3
April - 2023 - Project
far 46 0 1.2 1 5 1.14 18
near 38 0 1.6 1 7 2.06 13
June - 2022 - Control
far 19 0 1.1 1 2 0.73 17
near 12 0 1.7 2 5 1.70 10
June - 2022 - Project
far 18 0 0.9 1 3 0.91 6
near 12 0 0.9 1 2 0.64 5
July - 2022 - Control
far 21 0 1.4 1 6 1.84 8
near 14 0 1.2 1 3 0.94 6
July - 2022 - Project
far 19 0 0.7 1 3 0.67 12
near 11 0 0.6 1 2 0.61 3
August - 2022 - Control
far 126 0 3.7 1 21 5.02 20
near 84 0 3.5 2 18 4.77 16
August - 2022 - Project
far 72 0 1.0 1 5 1.01 24
near 69 0 1.4 1 8 1.77 21

April 2023 catch

The blank bars on the right show the count of pots with no catch.

Fish measurements

Total length (mm)

Weight (g)

Sex